Organization within a System

            I’ve actually been a member of various successful teams, each with their own unique structures whom have had their own respective success. As I’ve previously mentioned in one of my previous blogs, I’m part of a social fraternity who has a certain organizational structure stemming from a president to seven executive members each who has their own committee. The president has a pretty straightforward job, he oversees that each executive member is doing his job, runs meetings, and attends meetings representing the fraternity as a whole. It could be said that the president implements a centralized system since he decides what needs to be done with little input from the other exec members. The reason why the system is centralized is due to the fact that most social fraternities have the same general structure and since the university has standards set for all fraternities. Executive members’ job varies depending on their role. For example there is an executive member in charge of brotherhood events (events centered around the promotion of members of the fraternity interacting with one another and to meet each other in a more personal level) such as barbeques, paintballing, eating out etc. The executive member in charge of brotherhood events also oversees that every member is doing good academically and is in good emotional health. For example, if a member from the fraternity is depressed and is failing classes, the executive member in charge of brotherhood makes sure that that member gets the proper help from university resources. The executive member in charge of brotherhood implements a decentralized system since he relies on his committee members input. For example, when helping out a member who, as previously mentioned, is in need of help, the brotherhood exec relies on his committees input and when analyzing how to resolve such issues. Like the exec member in charge of brotherhood events, the other exec members implement similar strategies. For example, the exec member in charge of programming also implements a decentralize system, probably the most decentralized of all. His committee members are in charge of coming up with community service events, philanthropy events, and social events. The exec member leaves it up to the committee’s discretion to come up with events but the committee takes input from the rest of the members of the fraternity. For example, the committee member in charge of social events makes polls on Facebook where the rest of the members get to vote on what events they prefer. Same system applies for the community service aspect. The committee member working under the exec member of programming comes up with community service events and then its up to the rest of the fraternity members to choose which events to attend.

            The system my fraternity implements works pretty smoothly since it uses a good mixture of system implementations depending on the hierarchy level that certain members hold. The system is pretty centralized from the top, where the president sets out general “to-do list” and then each exec member uses a decentralized system letting their respective committee members handle their respective work area.

            Another team that I’ve worked with that implemented a different system from the one I’ve previously mentioned is working as a project director for AMA (American Marketing Association). AMA is an RSO here at the university, which focuses on developing Marketing experience and knowledge. As the previous example, AMA has a president who then has an executive board working under her. Each exec member then has a committee who handles specific task. For example, I work under the exec member in charge of professional development; the professional development exec member is in charge of working with clients such as banks and provides them with a team that works in providing consulting services. My job is to lead a team of consultants who come up with questions for a client, analyze their needs, and the come up with solutions to their problems. As opposed the previous example where a centralized system is used from top to bottom, AMA has a more decentralized system from the top and a more centralized system at the bottom hierarchies. The president allows her exec members to run things to their discretion and the exec members do the same when it comes their committees. The system changes once it hits committee level and the system becomes more centralized. For example, I run a centralized system as a project director since I only serve as a middleman between the exec member I work under and my team. The professional development exec member sets out a game plan for me and my job is to simply ensure that my team fallows the game plan set.

            An interesting fact about AMA is that it began to use economies of scale to its advantage. They had a huge input of new members this semester, which allowed them to expand and take upon new projects such as working under Vitamin Water, another big company. If you compare AMA to a firm you can say that they over achieved in its core competencies, taking over new projects and still providing excellent service.

            Having experience with different teams shows how different organizations have to modify their structure and organize certain ways to get the best out of their members, and duties.

Opportunism

          Since and early age, my father’s fascination for Trucks has been admirable. Though he was by no means a poor performing student in school, it was evident what he’s career path would be; anything involving trucks and construction. Once my father had finished he’s high school education here in the United States, and my grandfather had saved enough money, they returned to their native land where my grandfather opened up he’s own construction business. He’s business required him to purchase three trucks, a front loader, tools, and to stock up his business with the required inventory and employees. Knowing his son’s fascination for trucks, my grandfather gave him one of he’s three trucks. My father was eager to learn and once he did, he took full advantage and worked long and hard for the family business. He’s fascination for trucks grew so much that he even learned the mechanics behind them; he learned how to fix them, upgrade, and even how to assemble them.

            My grandfather’s business prospered for quite some time, but once he began to make good money his live choices began to take a turn for the worse. He began to drink often and even began to gamble. His choices and his business correlated and he began to loose customers to upcoming similar businesses. My grandfather became so distressed that he decided to take a break from he’s business and knowing my father had come to know the how to run the place he decided to leave him in charge. The business had a quick turn for the best; he increased the inventory and purchased more trucks to accommodate for the recent increase in demand for construction material. Having an expertise in mechanics, my father began to take the lead in fixing the broken down machinery saving the business money. The business was growing prosperous once again and then a golden opportunity for my father arose, my grandfather had decided to return to the United States to work for his friend and he offered my father ownership of his home and the business. It was a perfect gift and a perfect opportunity for a man who just had his first child. Though one would imagine my father’s decision to be obvious, he declined my grandfather’s offer and decided to also leave for the U.S with his family, leaving the business behind.

            Knowing about my father’s fascination for trucks and construction, I was at awe when he told his story, yet his reasoning is somewhat understandable. From his perspective he felt that he would be taking advantage of my grandfather’s situation and he felt that he’s family needed him. Though his decision seemed noble to him at the time, in retrospect, he regrets not giving the idea a chance. For one, it was a passion for him to work with trucks and construction and he had made the business prosper when it was on a decline, everything was already set and it would have been a great opportunity for his new family (me being he’s new child). My father also explained to me that he thought more would come with patience. Since he already had an expertise on how to run a business he thought that with patience he could restart the old family business here in the United States. Some good did come out of my father’s patience since he did end up purchasing three trucks of his own, two of which he rents out to other truck driver’s and he did give his family a good life here in the U.S, a life that might not have been possible at his native land, but who knows, perhaps he did miss out on a more well off life.

            As previously discussed, some people might miss an opportunity due to being a “good citizen” or because being opportunistic might be considered unethical or maybe just because they believe good things come to those that wait like my father did. Though all those reasons might be noble, there might exist other reasons why people fail to be more opportunistic; some people might miss out on an opportunity due to the fear of failure. For example, though my father did explain he’s reasoning for not taking advantage of the opportunity he might not have seized the moment due to the fear of not keeping up the good work, or perhaps he felt that he needed my grandfather’s guidance. Regardless of the reason, missing an opportunity all have the same results in the short run. The respective individual missed a chance to either better him self or perhaps dogged failure, but regardless of the reason behind missing the opportunity the immediate outcome is the same. Thought the immediate outcome is the same, the long term outcome might turn out to be different depending on the reason for not taking advantage of an opportunity. Someone who feared taking risk might fear to take another chance later in the future as well, on the other hand, someone who was being patient and waited for another opportunity might be better of in the long run due to an even better one.

My experience with organizations

            One organization that I’ve been part of in school has been my social fraternity. The situation with my fraternity was unique because the year I joined was the year that the fraternity came back after being booted of campus for several years. At first, one might say that their was no real organization since no one had assigned roles and everything was sort of chaotic whether it was planning social events or planning community service events. Once roles where assigned by the colony coordinator things began to role more smoothly. Seven individuals, excluding the president, were assigned certain roles each with their own sub committee. The colony coordinator in charge of setting up the fraternity “coached” the selected executive board in doing their individual job. For example, a certain individual was in charge of overseeing social and community service events while another members were in charge of overseeing new member education. Members within those departments would then work under their respective “VP”. For example, members in the programming committee were in charge of either coming up with community service events or scheduling places for social events and reporting to their respective “VP”.  Overall the organizational structure was pretty straightforward; the committee members would work on their own specific jobs whether it was by themselves or with a partner then they would report to the VP they worked under. Depending on the VP, he would help out the committee members or just oversee that everything was running smoothly. After committee members reported to their VP, the VP would then update the president on how his department was doing. Depending on the updates the president would then schedule meetings to discuss with the exec board on what changes need to happen or to keep up the good work. One problem that did occur during the first semester that the executive board was in charge was that some exec members didn’t oversee their committees. For example, the VP of programming would tell his committee members what to do and the committee members would not finish the work that needed to be done. When the time to report updates to the president came they would have nothing to show for. On the other extreme of the spectrum, some VPs overstepped their boundaries and would try to run other exec’s committees causing dilemmas within the executive board.

            Being involved while in college is a transaction cost but a transaction cost that should help out in the future. One of the first transaction cost I encountered when I first came to this university as a freshman was spending time in searching organizations to join. Though I did end up joining some worthwhile organizations I could have spent the time looking for this organizations on something else such as studying more for my classes. Another transaction cost I faced was paying to be a member of said organizations. Though I do benefit and learn from these organizations I still had to pay to be part of them. Being in this university overall is in itself a transaction cost. We must pay thousands of dollars to remain in this university but we do so in order to learn the essentials for a given career. Within the given transaction costs we also face certain opportunity costs. We spend time, money, and work hard in school to secure a better future instead of working straight out of high school and earning money. As I mentioned earlier, I also faced opportunity cost when deciding to join organizations instead of using my spare time to study more. For example, my freshman year I was faced with the dilemma of staying in and studying everyday of the week or perhaps joining a social fraternity knowing the distractions and time commitment it came with, or whether I should join a club relating to my major in order to gain experience or just staying concentrated to my school work. Overall, one must think of the transaction cost and opportunity cost in the long run while asking one’s self it certain decisions are worth it.

Ben Bernanke

I had never heard of Ben Bernanke before he was assigned as my alias. Ben’s work is important because he is credited by some for steering the Fed during some of the biggest financial challenges since the great depression. He is also credited for jump starting a still moderate U.S recovery. It is said that Bernanke’s knowledge of economic recoveries is do to he’s intensive knowledge of the great depression. Though Bernanke worked for the nation he’s work is still relevant to the course because you can view the entire nation as a very complex organization.